Fellows and Success Stories
Current Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology Fellows
Incoming 2027 Fellows
Jessica Cheung, M.D.
Krista Cook, M.D.
Lucy Dooley, M.D.
Yoonhee Ha, M.D.
Julia Loosen, M.D.
Henry Marshall, M.D.
Olivia O'Keefe, M.D.
Continuing 2026 Fellows
Shivani Bhatnagar, D.O.
Clinician Leadership Track
Residency: Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
Michael Brady, M.D.
Clinician Educator Track
Residency: Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
Past Fellows
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Ujunwa Ebili, M.D.
Dr. Ebili completed her residency at Mt. Sinai Hospital of Chicago/Sinai Chicago. Post-fellowship, she returned to Illinois to work as a primary care physician.
Lydia Huang, M.D.
Dr. Huang completed her residency at Pennsylvania Hospital at UPHS.
Tiffany Tsay, M.D.
Dr. Tsay completed her residency at Inova Fairfax Family Medicine. After the fellowship, she works at Inova Health in Northern Virginia as a geriatrician and family medicine residency faculty member.
Marta Zampino, M.D.
Dr. Zampino completed her residency at the University of Maryland. Post-fellowship, she works at the Center for Successful Aging at MedStar Good Samaritan.
Mariam Zelaya Mejía, M.D.
Dr. Zelaya completed her residency at Indiana University SOM at Methodist. After the fellowship, she joined ASAS Health in Texas as a geriatric medicine primary care physician.
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Matthew Crow, D.O.
Dr. Crow completed his residency at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. After the fellowship, he now works in Washington, D.C., as a primary care physician at MedStar.
Havisha Gadepalli, M.D.
Dr. Gadepalli completed her residency at Stony Brook University Hospital and took the clinician educator track of the fellowship. After completing that, she joined the CIMS hospitalist service at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
Thomas Horton, M.D.
Dr. Horton completed his residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He returned to Savannah, Georgia, after the fellowship to join the internal medicine faculty at Memorial University Medical Center.
Elaine Ip, M.D.
Dr. Ip completed her residency at Meharry Medical College. Post-fellowship, she currently works at Columbia Meadows Assisted Living as medical director and primary care physician.
Yaldah Mohammad Nader, M.D.
Dr. Nader completed her residency at Lenox Hill Hospital. After the fellowship, she started work as a nocturnist for the in-patient oncology service at Johns Hopkins Hospital to focus on care for older adults with cancer.
Sohemi Pagan Leon, M.D.
Dr. Pagan completed her residency at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. After completing the clinician leadership track of the fellowship, she currently works at Baptist Health in Miami, Florida, doing internal medicine and geriatric care.
Daniel Thomas, M.D.
Dr. Thomas competed his residency at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Post-fellowship, he teaches at Penn State, where he's assistant professor in geriatric medicine, and coordinates care of hospitalized older adults with his colleagues.
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Crystal Arrendell, M.D.
Originally from Alexandria, Virginia, Dr. Arrendell attended New York University and did her family medicine residency at Temple University. She completed the clinician leadership fellowship track with one year at Hopkins and six months at Moorings Park in Naples, Florida, and now serves as the medical director of Senior CommUnity Care, a PACE program in Hyattsville, Maryland.
Pavitri Dwivedi, M.D., M.P.H.
After growing up in Newington, Connecticut, Dr. Dwivedi attended the University of Connecticut and Boston University, worked in Philadelphia as program manager for the Hepatitis B Foundation, and then completed her training at West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine and Care Point Health in New Jersey. She currently provides geriatric primary care in Millersville, Maryland, as part of the University of Maryland system.
Parisa Javidiparsijani, M.D.
After training in and practicing medicine in her home country of Iran, Dr. Javidiparsijani moved to Wake Forest, North Carolina, to do research before ending up in internal medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. She now works for ChenMed providing primary care for older adults in Richmond, Virginia, in a value-based care model.
Thomas Kim, D.O.
From Los Angeles, Dr. Kim attended the University of Southern California prior to attending medical school at Touro University California and doing his residency at Eastern Connecticut Health Network. He's returned to Los Angeles, where he cares for older adults in a PACE program with AltaMed Health Services.
Kimia Mahan, M.D.
Originally from Iran, Dr. Mahan completed her medical training at the University of Tehran before doing her internal medicine residency at Medstar Health in Baltimore. She currently practices geriatric medicine in Anaheim, California, and hopes one day to run her own home care program.
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Sana Durrani, M.D.
Dr. Durrani attended medical school in her hometown of Karachi, Pakistan, before moving to Indianapolis, Indiana, to work on research in geriatrics and completing her internal medicine training at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C. After completing the clinician leadership fellowship track at Moorings Park in Naples, Florida, she's now a geriatrician at NYU Langone.
Redmond Finney, M.D.
Born and raised in Baltimore, Dr. Finney attended the University of Richmond in Virginia for undergraduate education, the University of Maryland School of Medicine for medical school, and then completed his residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center before moving to Johns Hopkins Bayview to train in geriatric medicine. He completed his palliative care fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital and is currently on the Johns Hopkins faculty in the divisions of General Internal Medicine and Geriatric Medicine providing hospital-based consultative care.
Blen Girmay, M.D.
Dr. Girmay is originally from Maryland and did her undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland Baltimore County prior to attending medical school and completing her internal medicine residency at New York University. She works as a home-based primary care geriatrician with INOVA Fairfax in Fairfax, Virginia.
David Hurwitz, M.D.
Dr. Hurwitz earned his medical degree at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and completed a three-year internal medicine residency at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center specializing in primary care. He now serves as the medical director of the Beacham Medical Center.
Mfon Umoh, M.D., Ph.D.
Originally from Nigeria, Dr. Umoh grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, and completed her undergraduate degree in bioengineering at The University of Pennsylvania before receiving her combined M.D. and Ph.D. at Emory University. She completed her internal medicine residency training at Johns Hopkins Bayview, and after finishing her three-year clinician researcher fellowship, she joined the Johns Hopkins faculty as assistant professor in the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology.
Hannah Ward, M.D.
Dr. Ward grew up in Rochester, New York, and attended the University of Rochester for college and medical school. She completed her internal medicine residency program and her two-year clinician educator fellowship at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center and is now on the faculty at Maine Medical Center as a primary care geriatrician and clinician educator.
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Maria Bellantoni, M.D.
Dr. Bellantoni attended the F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, and completed her residency at the Johns Hopkins Urban Health residency program. After her geriatrics fellowship, she moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where she serves as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center.
April Ehrlich, M.D., M.S.
Dr. Ehrlich attended the University of Arizona College of Medicine and completed her residency at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, followed by a three-year geriatrics clinician researcher fellowship. She's now on the faculty of the University of Arizona and practices geriatrics at Banner Health.
Janelle Ho, M.D.
Dr. Ho attended the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and completed her residency at the Johns Hopkins Bayview internal medicine residency program. Following her geriatrics fellowship, she moved to San Francisco, California, where she is the lead physician at the On Lok PACE Gee Center.
Simone Lescott, M.D.
Dr. Lescott completed her family practice residency at Tallahassee Memorial in Tallahassee, Florida. Following her geriatrics fellowship, she completed a palliative care fellowship at Yale Medical School in New Haven, Connecticut, and now works as a geriatrician and palliative care physician at Piedmont Augusta Heart Failure Center in Augusta, Georgia.
Nicholas Schmedding, M.D.
Dr. Schmedding attended Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine prior to completing his residency at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. After a three-year clinician researcher fellowship, he's currently an oncology fellow at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Our Fellows
Fellowship Success Stories
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As a four year old, Halima Amjad, M.D., M.P.H., told her parents that she wanted to be mommy and daddy’s doctor when she grew up. But she never truly imagined she would become a geriatrician and dementia care researcher when that was precisely what her family would need. “I had little exposure to clinical geriatrics and research before residency. But I knew I wanted to take care of patients holistically and improve clinical care where I saw gaps. Being a geriatrician researcher allows me to do just that.” As a resident learning about geriatrics, Dr. Amjad found herself drawn to the art of medicine and individualized decision-making that is at the heart of geriatrics. “I also found myself drawn to the benefit of a ‘less is more’ approach for some of my more complex or frail hospitalized patients.”
Alongside clinical training, Dr. Amjad’s family experiences guided her evolving expertise and career interests. Dr. Amjad’s father was diagnosed with early-onset dementia due to frontotemporal degeneration in 2009, around the time she was graduating from medical school. Challenges that her family encountered guided Dr. Amjad not only to geriatrics but also to dementia-centered care. She completed a clinical and research fellowship in geriatrics at Johns Hopkins from 2013 to 2016, and then joined our faculty as a clinician investigator. Today, she sees patients at the Johns Hopkins Memory and Alzheimer’s Treatment Center and conducts epidemiologic and health services research focused on improving dementia diagnosis and care.
“The fellowship program allowed me to get both the clinical and research training that I needed to establish a career that would allow me to honor my dad and other families grappling with dementia. I credit the fellowship training and mentorship at Johns Hopkins for all that I have accomplished and still hope to accomplish.”
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Crystal Arrendell, M.D. (second from left) didn’t know she’d end up in geriatrics when she began her residency at Temple University. But after working with multiple geriatricians and older adults, she realized she loved it. That and a desire to be closer to home convinced her to apply to the Hopkins fellowship program. Once she started at Bayview, she immediately felt how special the experience was.
“It was life-changing how knowledgeable my attendings were but also how very kind and approachable,” she says. “I knew I didn’t want to go into academic medicine and was concerned that people wouldn’t know what to do with me, but as soon as I told them I wanted clinical, every time they found out about a clinical opportunity, they’d send it to me.” One such opportunity became her favorite Hopkins memory: thanks to the help of Dr. Esther Oh, Dr. Arrendell was able to travel to Amsterdam in the Netherlands to see their dementia village. In this village, patients with advanced dementia can wander safely through their neighborhoods because the village itself is locked, leaving patients free to roam within its boundaries. She appreciated seeing the patients given that freedom and hopes to see similar villages open across the U.S. someday.
A natural leader, Dr. Arrendell's experiences as chief resident during her residency led her to choose the clinician leadership track and work to hone her leadership skills. She spent six months at Moorings Park post fellowship and loved her time in Florida, where she was able to practice medicine with autonomy while having the medical directors close by to talk through difficult cases and offer support whenever she needed it.
Because PACE was her favorite rotation during her fellowship year, it’s no surprise that Crystal ended up choosing her current job as medical director of Senior CommUnity Care, a PACE program in Maryland. She loves that with PACE, rather than spending time dealing with commercial insurance, she’s practicing truly patient-focused medicine.
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After attending F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland, and completing the Johns Hopkins Urban Health residency program, Maria Bellantoni, M.D., reflected on the field of geriatric medicine before deciding what to do next. She found herself drawn to several facets of the practice. "Geriatrics provides the opportunity to practice thoughtful and complex clinical medicine in a manner that requires us to take the patient context fully into consideration," she says. "The population is particularly fun to work with due to their collective wisdom. And it's also a field rife with opportunity to influence policy." Because health care for older adults is the highest expense in the U.S. health care system, policies and how they're enacted can have significant societal as well as individual impacts.
Once she chose geriatrics, Dr. Bellantoni knew she wanted to be a part of the Johns Hopkins geriatrics fellowship thanks to the robust array of clinical rotations and the chance to work with faculty who are among the field's most respected experts. Her favorite rotation as a fellow was the PACE program. "I enjoyed working at Hopkins ElderPlus," she says, "because it was a wonderful way to experience a unique model of care at all levels, from clinical medicine to executive leadership. The ElderPlus team is remarkably dedicated to the program and its participants."
Post-fellowship, Dr. Bellantoni accepted the role of chief clinical consultant for geriatrics and palliative care for the Indian Health Service. As part of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, she's pleased to be stationed at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center. Of her time in the fellowship, she says, "If you're looking for a combination of broad clinical training, expert faculty who open doors to myriad opportunities, and an incredibly welcoming, supportive environment, our program can't be beat!"
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Thomas Kim, D.O.'s path to a career in geriatrics started in middle school. His mother, a certified nurse assistant in Los Angeles’s Koreatown area, has worked for 30 years in geriatrics, and she often invited her son to help out. As he worked alongside her to care for older adults, he grew to appreciate the special needs they had and how to meet those needs.
After attending the University of Southern California and then Touro University California for medical school, he completed his residency at Eastern Connecticut Health Network. Because his residency was at a small hospital, he wanted to “dive in the deep end” with a fellowship. “I knew Hopkins was a very resource-rich institution from research to teaching to clinical care,” he says. “I wanted to take advantage of what they have to offer.” He particularly loved learning from Bayview hospital’s physical and occupational therapists, and uses that knowledge frequently to this day when coordinating care for his patients.
During his time at Hopkins, Dr. Kim deepened his commitment to geriatric care, and one rotation in particular altered his career trajectory. Thanks to his work with Dr. Matt McNabney and the team at Hopkins ElderPlus, he discovered PACE programs and then applied exclusively for PACE positions at the fellowship’s end. That’s how he ended up in his current role as a physician at AltaMed PACE Santa Ana, where he feels blessed to serve the low-income, mostly Hispanic population while improving his Spanish.
“Hopkins is a very inspiring place to be,” Dr. Kim says. “I met the most brilliant and hard-working doctors I’ve ever worked with during my rotations. Even to this day when I do a physical exam on my patients, I ask myself if this is something that would be up to Dr. Durso’s standards.”
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Mariah Robertson, M.D., M.P.H. has had a circuitous journey to where she is today, but when she reflects on her "why," this path been written in the stars all along. Out of college, she diverged from her colleagues in the premed track. While they all pursued medical school, she decided she wanted to tackle the health care system from a population level. She received a Master's of Public Health with a focus on epidemiology and behavioral sciences, and spent five years working in the realm of health disparities, specifically focused on access to physical activity and nutrition.
But then her mother was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, and Dr. Robertson realized she wanted to be physically close by to care for her. Also, as a frustrated caregiver, she wanted to change the systems of care that weren't built well for her mother or others like her. That's when she decided to pursue geriatric medicine. After a lucky meeting with Dr. John Burton on a site visit to her medical school, Dr. Robertson heard about a residency program in Baltimore that might be a good fit for someone with her interests, and when her mother passed away and she no longer needed to remain in the Midwest, she decided to shoot for the stars and apply to Johns Hopkins Bayview for residency. The rest is history.
All of her life, including her personal and professional experiences, have led Dr. Robertson to geriatric medicine, specifically the care of homebound and socially isolated patients. Her health disparities experience in public health have made her laser-focused on changing the way we care for our most vulnerable older adults. Additionally, her personal life experiences afford her an empathy rooted in watching her own mother suffer in a health care system that failed her. She's been a caregiver and felt helpless and hopeless, driving her to empower and support her patients and their caregivers on an individual level and at a systems level. As an educator and associate program director for the fellowship, Dr. Robertson also trains the next generation of physicians to be advocates for their older adult patients.
"I feel such gratitude that, as I look backward, each step I have taken has led me to where I am," she says. "I'm excited to make a continued impact on the elders I am fortunate to serve in the Baltimore community and beyond."
